Lewis Hamilton took a sensational Spanish Grand Prix victory – his 55th Formula 1 career win – to close the championship gap between him and leader Sebastian Vettel to just six points after five rounds.
The Mercedes driver started from pole position but immediately lost out to Ferrari's Vettel at the first corner as the German got a great start from second on the grid. Although the pair stayed within touching distance for much of the first stint, an early stop for Vettel handed the lead back to Hamilton, who chose to remain out longer.
The pair traded quickest laps throughout the race before switching positions again, until the final round of stops when Vettel came out alongside Hamilton. The pair entered Turn 1 side-by-side, but it was Vettel who came out on top as Hamilton was forced to run wide – a move which went unpunished by the stewards.
Just a handful of laps later and on the softer tyre, Hamilton managed to make his move for the lead of the race where he remained until the final lap to take the checkered flag and his second win of the 2017 season.
Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo took the final step on the podium, albeit finishing more than 75 seconds behind Hamilton.
It was a day to forget for the top three's team-mates however as a first lap incident saw both Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen retire with suspension damage after the pair collided. Valtteri Bottas was also involved, but escaped damage. However the Finn later stopped with an engine failure.
That meant fourth and fifth went to Force India's Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon, followed by the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg.
Pascal Wehrlein would have been seventh for Sauber had he not been hit with a five-second time penalty for failing to keep to the right of a bollard on the pit entry. He drops to eighth behind Carlos Sainz, splitting the two Toro Rosso cars.
Romain Grosjean completed the top 10 for Haas and it could have been a double points finish for the American outfit had Kevin Magnussen not suffered a puncture on the penultimate lap of the race, dropping him with P14.
Fernando Alonso could only manage P12 despite starting seventh after he too got caught up in the opening lap carnage. The Spaniard bounced across the gravel after contact with Williams' Felipe Massa, who suffered a puncture in the clash to finish just behind in 13th.
